"We are making a full-fledged horror movie set within the X-Men universe," director Josh Boone told EW. "There are no costumes. There are no supervillains. We're trying to do something very, very different."

The New Mutants comic series was created by Chris Claremont in the early 1980s, with the movie inspired by the run of the comic after artist Bill Sienkiewicz joined in 1984 when the series became "Stephen King meets John Hughes".